Craving Touch
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: Gaara found her in the dessert, bruised and unconcious and left to die.He didn't know who she was or how she got there, she didn't seem to belong to the sand village or any other village that he could think of. Gaara/Fem Naru
1. Chapter 1

He found her while on a routine patrol around the village. Laying face down in the sand. The pale exposed skin of her shoulders and mid back were covered in bruises and little bloody cuts. Her clothes torn. Her mid back length jet black hair tangled and matted against her scalp.

"Kazakage-sama?" One of his shinobi said in a shocked tone as they stared at the young female body partially buried under the sand dunes. Gaara frowned and moved started to move forward when a hand reached out and grasped his arm just above his wrist, pulling him to a stop.

Pale aqua eyes swung around to stare at the one holding onto him and frowned again when he saw his older brother's worried face. "Not too close little bro. This could be a trap of some kind." Kankuro pointed out gently.

The red headed male nodded his head sagely. He was well aware of the risks. Especially since this was a ploy often used by his enemies to assassinate him.

They would drag some hapless woman or girl or child from the village, often times right from her home. They then tortured her and left her to die of exposure out in the dessert after attaching a paper bomb and several other _very_ unpleasant things to the body.

But Kankuro needed to understand. That if there was even the slightest chance that the woman may still be alive, he _had_ to risk it. He had to at least try to save her so that when her family and friends were told of her demise he could tell them that he did everything that he could, that her death had been quick and as painless as possible.

It wouldn't really matter if it was a lie as long as there was _some_ grain of truth in it and he could stand over the woman's grave and say a prayer for her without feeling as if he had done some terrible thing that had caused her death.

Like abandoning her to her fate. To die alone and scared, if she wasn't already dead that is.

He gently pulled his arm from his older brother's grasp and motioned for the Anbu and his brother to move back so that he wouldn't have to worry about them getting caught in the cross fire if there was a trap set. The group all moved back away from him a good twenty nine feet or so as he used a small jutsu to clear away some of the sand close to the woman's body so that he could first determine if there was a land mine under the unknown females body.

After determining that there wasn't a land mine hidden under the young woman's body, he moved in closer and cautiously-

Very cautiously, laid a hand on her shoulder and carefully turned her over onto her back and blinked when he noted how relaxed her body was. Her limbs and her head moving a little bit as her body settled onto it's back.

The entire left side of her face was covered in sand, partially hiding her features from him.

His heart thudding in his chest, he reached out and gently brushed some of the sand from the woman's face and sucked in a breath at how warm her skin felt to the touch. Of course they were in the middle of a dessert, and heat was one of the few things that was never lacking here, but he knew the difference between a corpse's over heated body and an alive person's over heated body.

She was alive.

He was sure of it even though he couldn't really see the rise and fall of her breasts. Leaning over her still form a little bit he laid his ear against her chest and jerked upright again as soon as he confirmed the slow soft thud of her heart.

"Kankuro! Summon a medic! She's alive!"

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Okay...

Some of you are probably going 'Oh god not another one' and some of you are probably going 'Yay a new story!'

I can sympathize with some of you. But I can't seem to get an really interesting ideas to click right now so I thought I'd try something new. I'm not sure if any of you are aware of this, but when I first started writing fanfic 5 years ago I started with Gaara/fem Naru stories.

Because as a couple they just seemed so damn_ fascinating_.

Those old stories are gone now. Because they sucked and my computer crashed and they were deleted.

But Gaara has been and probably always will be one of my favorite characters aside from Kakashi-rank 1

And Naruto-who ranks 2.

I think that like Kakashi and Naruto, Gaara is one of the most beloved characters because he years to be loved for who he is. He longs for a special bond and I'm glad that he has some of those things in the Shippuden series. But there is always something missing and that's part of the reason why I thought I would try my hand at this (Gaara) again.

I think he's cool under pressure. Calm natured. His quietness is often mistaken for intimidation tactics, but I think he's merely shy and maybe a little more content to sit back and watch everyone else get what they need before he bothers to look to himself.

So anyone who is a Gaara fan...might like this story.

And anyone who doesn't-

Well, you don't want me to really say the words because they really are rude.

So just bear with me and lets see what happens in this story while I try to think of what to write next in my others.


	2. Chapter 2

It took about thirty minutes for the medics to get to their location outside of the village, and once they were there Gaara relinquished the girl into their care and used his sand to create a tall wall around himself and the group of Sand nins and medics so that they would be protected from any harm should an enemy be close enough to try something stupid.

He settled himself as close to the girl and watched as the medics checked her for wounds and started saying a small list of things that needed to be taken care of. "Patient Jane Doe, unconscious. Found in the dessert. Suffering from-"

"Severe dehydration-"

"Hair line fractures in the skull, the right shoulder, forearms-"

"Bruising consistent with a scuffle-"

"I've got needle treks here on the side of the neck-"

"A little bit of internal bleeding-"

"We need to move her out of the sun before we can add sun stroke to the list." One medic said as he opened a bright reddish orange bag and pulled out a clear plastic bag full of liquid and unwound the little cord from around the bag then pulled out a little butterfly needle, and some alcohol cotton swabs and grabbed one of the girl's arms and cleaned off a patch of skin and then pushed the needle into one of the veins in the back of the girl's hands and then pulled a roll of little chalky white tape out of the bag and taped the needle into place.

As one of the other medics pulled a make shift gurney that consisted of two polls and a piece of white fabric out of his back pack and quickly set it up as another put an oxygen mask over the girl's face and another placed a neck brace around her neck.

Gaara frowned a little bit as two men moved into position to pick the girl up and moved her onto the gurney. And placed a thin white blanket over her and then picked it up and looked at him, awaiting his orders.

Gaara slowly stood to his full height and let his sand wall drop after using some of his chakra to scan the area, just to be on the safe side before summoning a portion of the rest of his chakra to teleport the entire group; his Anbu and brother included.

Back to the village so that the girl would get the treatment that she apparently needed so badly.

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Several hours later-

Gaara sat in the cushy seat that he had confiscated from his brother with a pile of papers in his hands regarding the presence of the Jane Doe that he had found. He looked over the questions and silently looked for something that he could answer and found the age question.

It seemed easy enough.

Yet he ended up writing '16-?' in the blank space before moving on to the blood type question and putting an ? mark in the blank just like he had with the rest of the ridiculous questions that they expected him to be able to answer. Jane Does were Jane Does for a reason.

Because they were unknown.

If he knew her social security number, her age, weight, and prior medical conditions; then he would know everything about every person in the world and his head would probably explode. He sighed and handed it off to his brother who gave him a comical scowl, but got the message anyways and took the clip board and ink pen and started to fill out the rest while muttering under his breath.

"Weight. One hundred and ten-"

"Age... well you've more or less got that one covered huh-"

"Prior medical conditions... She looked anemic to me. Didn't she look anemic to you?" Kankuro asked as he poked an Anbu in the ribs causing the man to snatch the ink pen away from him and threaten to shove it someplace really uncomfortable on Kankuro's body. Gaara rolled his eyes at the two men's childish antics and crossed his arms over his chest and settled himself in for another hour or so wait when a doctor came walking into the room.

"Kazakage-sama." Gaara looked up and blinked before quickly unfolding his arms and getting to his feet.

"Doctor. How is she?"

The man grimaced a little bit. "The girl is in stable condition. Her heart and respiration are a little below normal-"

"Why?" Gaara asked curiously, sensing that the man was trying to tell him something.

The doctor looked at him almost nervously. "Well, sir we had to run a tox screen on a blood sample that we took from her and found that she had a peculiar drug in her system..."

"Go on." Gaara said, if the man had wanted to make sure that he had his full attention, he needn't have bothered to beat around the bush. He had Gaara's undivided attention the moment that he had walked into the waiting room.

"We found a very high dose of hallucinogens in her blood. Not enough to kill her, mind you. But enough to distort her senses and make her helpless..." Gaara's aqua eyes narrowed a little bit as he thinned his lips wondering why someone would want to distort their senses.

"I think-after looking at some of her wounds and the way her clothes were torn up, that she maybe got into a fight with someone out to-" The doctor cleared his throat nervously and looked uneasy. But Gaara more or less got what he was so nervous about saying.

"You think someone drugged her so that they could have their way with her."

"Uh. Yes actually. And since many of her wounds are defensive it's a strong possibility that before she succumbed to the drugs that she knew that and was trying to fight them off."

"I see-" Was all that Gaara said as he looked away for a second. His temper spiking at the thought of some spineless coward drugging and raping a helpless girl before dumping her out in the dessert to die of exposure.

"Well sir, I don't think you do-"

Gaara looked back at the doctor curiously as the man said. "There was no evidence of sexual assault, so it's a very strong possibility that whoever attacked her was disturbed or thought that they had killed her and simply dumped her before running away-"

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Okay.

I'm sorry if this chapter sucks.

I've actually wrote and re wrote this chapter like five times already and wasn't happy with the others so here is this one. If you don't like it well...grin and bear it for now because I'm not writing it again okay.

I have to go cook dinner and take a shower then I'll be back.

Hopefully with chapter 3


	3. Chapter 3

Two days later-

Gaara sat in his office impatiently waiting for Kankuro to arrive so that he could go to the hospital to check up on Jane Doe who to his current knowledge wasn't a shinobi, or a wanted criminal. After going back to the office the day that he had found her he had sent out letters to several diamyo's and to the Kage of the leaf village along with a picture of the girl in an effort to see if anyone recognised her.

So far no one had.

Her finger prints weren't in any of the civilian or shinobi files in Sauna. Her blood type and DNA didn't match anyone's.

He was beginning to think that he was asking about a ghost or something. And the lack of knowledge on her was starting to worry him greatly. There were only a few reason's that he could think of for someone to be so squeaky clean and to go unnoticed by others.

1) She was a criminal from a different country.

2) She was a shinobi that was so _deep_ under cover that her village had decided to deny all knowledge of her existence.

3) She was hiding from something. Or _someone_.

4) She had faked her own death to run away from home. Which might mean that she was maybe a noble trying to escape from an arranged marriage or something.

And that was pretty much all that he could think of at the moment, but there were a few other things that he could add to the list. He just couldn't think of them at the moment. Aqua eyes flickered to the clock hanging on the wall across from his black mahogany desk and propped his chin up in his palm and drummed the fingers of his free hand on the desk in annoyance until finally the door opened and Kankuro peeked in.

"Hey bro."

Gaara perked up a little bit and tried to smile at his brother, but it came across as a scowl somehow. "Your late." Gaara said softly as he got up out of his chair and grabbed his sand gourd which had been leaning against the wall next to his seat and slipped it on over his head as Kankuro came into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Yeah, sorry about that I was in a meeting with T&I guys-" Kankuro said and nearly tripped over his own feet when his younger brother practically zoomed across the room and grabbed him by the front of the shirt and started shaking him.

"Why didn't you say so before? Did they find anything? Please tell me that they found something? Her name? Her birth place? Her family?" Gaara wasn't aware of just how upset he sounded, but then Kankuro heard the stress in his tone and figured that he was responsible for close to thirty nine thousand people that he'd probably be pretty anxious too if he found someone that he knew absolutely nothing about outside of the village and couldn't get any information on them no matter where he looked.

Gaara _needed_ that information so that he could be sure that he hadn't made a mistake in bringing the girl into the village to help her. He needed to know that she wasn't a threat to him or to the village so that he could figure out what to do with her.

Gaara stopped shaking him when Kankuro reached up and grasped his wrists in his hands and squeezed slightly, the small contact seemingly snapping the young Kage out of his thoughts enough to realise that he might be hurting his brother. "Oh-" Gaara said as he blinked his aqua eyes and slowly forced his fingers to let go of Kankuro's shirt. "Sorry. I didn't mean to do that." Gaara muttered as he stepped away from Kankuro.

His brother was silent for a second then blinked and gave Gaara an bemused look. "S'okay little brother. No harm done. But no. Our T&I guys didn't find anything."

Gaara sighed and ran his fingers through his shaggy red hair. "_Damn_. Where the hell did this woman come from? Under a rock?"

"It's starting to look like a distinct possibility." Kankuro said in wary amusement as Gaara started pacing a little bit. The action reminding Kankuro of a caged tiger.

"Why is it that we can find _Orochimaru_ and _his_ people? Yet one_ lone_ girl stumps the hell out of us?" Gaara asked with a frustrated expression on his face as he finally stopped pacing. Kankuro shrugged his shoulders. To be perfectly honest the lack of information on the girl was mind boggling.

Whoever helped her cover her tracks did an awesome job. But if Gaara ever found them, he'd probably kill them for fun for vexing him so. "I have no idea little brother. But as soon as Jane Doe wakes up you can ask her."

"A brilliant idea. Stay here and cover for me while I go see if that damn woman is awake yet."


	4. Chapter 4

Awareness seeped into her mind slowly. The constant coming and going of the people in her room reminding her of all of the hospital back home. The soft rhythmic beeping of a machine by her bedside only seemed to drive her thoughts of the hospital, home in her mind.

She stirred slightly, her eyes flickering open for an instant only to shut again a moment later because of the brightness in the room. Her head felt like it was spinning a sharp throbbing ache forming behind her eyes causing them to tear up a little bit as she breathed.

In. And...out?

The fact that she was breathing alone was shocking to her.

After how her mission had gone awry she hadn't expected to wake up breathing. Hell, she hadn't expected to _wake up_ at all. She stirred a little more and managed to open her eyes again. Keeping them open only long enough to look around the room and note that the interior of the khaki colored walls weren't the same as the pristine egg shell white belonging to the leaf village.

There were subtle differences. The color of the wall was just one. Another that she noted was that there were three watercolor paintings on the wall. The one across the room from the bed was a painting of wild pink and red roses. The one to her right was a long stemmed iris, the deep purple and soft yellow colors blending together slightly as her vision blurred for a moment. And the one on her left, was of a pond with water lilies painted in soft pinks, pastel blues, and several different colors of pale, pale yellow and white.

She moaned softly and tried to sit up but couldn't. Her body felt far too weak. Just what the hell had those guys in the _Hazama no Shidosa_ do to her anyways? The last thing that she remembered was sitting at the table in the bar where she met with her contact and talking a little bit then...

Everything had gone blank.

Almost as if her mind had been tampered with.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, her headache got considerably worse. The dull ache morphing into a sharp painful throb that made her cry out and lift her hands to grab at her head. Her breath coming out in short ragged sobs.

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Gaara stepped off of the elevator a few feet from the reception desk and walked over to it and rapped his knuckles lightly on the surface to get the attention of the young woman typing on the computer.

The woman stopped and looked up at him, wide amber eyes blinking before she flushed slightly and lifted a hand to nervously play with her honey colored hair. "Kazakage-sama. What can I do for you?" She asked curiously.

"I need the room number of the Jane Doe that I brought in the other day. Can you look up which room she is in please?"

"Sure. Just give me a second-" The woman said before letting her hand drop away from her hair and turning her attention back to the computer screen and typing in something before saying. "Jane Doe is in room number 205."

"Thank you." Gaara said as he pushed away from the desk and started walking down the hall to room 205 hoping that the girl might be awake. He doubted that she would be. But he hoped. He paused just outside of room 205 and grasped the knob in his hand and was about to enter when he heard a crash followed by a dull thud on the other side of the door and froze for a split second before his shinobi training kicked in and he opened the door and stepped in, cold aqua eyes scanned the room for any sign of an intruder.

His sand swirled around his body in irritation before he noted the empty bed and moved further into the room and frowned when he spied the tip of a dark head laying on the floor. "Shit." Gaara hissed as he moved around to the other side of the bed and grabbed the call button and pressed it before dropping to one knee next to the girl and reached out and grasped one of her wrists and checked for a pulse before slipping an arm under her and lifting her body slightly.

She was shaking. Her body simply didn't seem able to control itself. Her breathing was rough, quick-

A sign of distress.

He wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her against him and brushed her dark hair back from her face, noting that her skin looked ashen and there were tear treks on her pale cheeks. Her eyes flickered open for a second and looked at him. He opened his mouth to ask her something, but shut his mouth again when a doctor and two nurses came in and took her from him.

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Hello.

Sorry that it took so long to post this chapter.

I had to do some things with my husband.

So anyways here is this chapter and I'll start on the next one in a little bit.


	5. Chapter 5

Gaara sat next to the bed staring at the dark haired girl laying in a drug induced sleep on the narrow bed. His mind playing over his earlier conversation with the doctor who had been treating her.

_"Kazakage-sama!" The man said in surprise as he walked out of the room and saw his Kage standing with his back resting against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest, his dark ringed aqua eyes seemingly glaring at the door that the doctor had just walked out of. He had been standing out in the hall for the better part of an hour in a half waiting for someone to come out so that he could ask what the hell was going on with the girl. _

_And now that someone was finally out in the hall with him, his voice didn't seem to want to work. "How is she?" He rasped after a second or so. The man sighed. He wasn't exactly sure what to say to his village leader. _

_"The drugs still aren't out of her system." The man said lamely. Gaara gave him a bored look. _

_"Have the drugs in her blood damaged her nerves or brain?" Gaara asked curiously. He didn't know much about hallucinogens, but he knew that some could be used to brain wash someone while others were used in torture to help induce a psychotic break in the subject that it was used on. Others damaged nerves and fried the brain. Causing long term damage that inevitably killed. _

_"N-No. No. The drugs have just scrambled up her mind a little bit-" Gaara gave him a pointed look and the man gave a quick nervous laugh before sobering up. "That wasn't what I meant to say. What I meant to say was that the drugs haven't caused any severe damage. Nothing that can't be reversible over time with the right treatment. Her memories are messed up though." _

_"Oh? Then you don't think that she had been trying to escape when I found her in the floor?" _

_"I'm sure that she was trying to escape, but Kazakage-sama try to understand. Thanks to those drugs in her blood, she has no idea where she is. Who she is. Why she's here. How she got here. If she's safe. She probably very frightened. Terrified even. Anyone feeling such fear would try to escape. It's only logical." _

_Gaara made a humming sound. "Is she in pain?" _

_"She was. It's one of the side effects of the drugs. We managed to put her in a semi comma to spare her more discomfort but she won't wake up for another few days." _

_"Will she be able to answer my questions when she wakes up?" _

_The doctor was quiet for a second. "She would only be able to answer you to the best of her ability sir." _

_Gaara's lips curved up in a small smile. "Well that is something I suppose. Thank you doctor." _

He sighed and leaned forward in his seat and rested his chin on top of his laced fingers for a second before standing up and moving to stand directly next to the bed and studied the girl's sleeping face for a moment before turning around and leaving.

Just a few more days. Just a few more days and he would have the answers that he desired.

He was nothing but patient when it came to the people around him.

He could wait.


	6. Chapter 6

Because some of you asked so nicely.

IloveItachi97, 9taylz4evr, here is your chapter.

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Gaara had to restrain himself to keep from leaping across his desk and throttling his brother as he proceeded to tell him that once again their T&I guys and _every_ other information network they had were _still_ coming up empty when they were asked anything about the Jane Doe in the village hospital.

It was frustrating that they had had an entire week and three days. And they still hadn't found anything out! The red head made a small growling sound and banged his head on his desk. Gods if they didn't find out something about that woman soon-

He was going to lose his mind.

"I'm beginning to think that we really are asking after a ghost, Gaara." Kankuro said as he glanced at his younger brother when he heard a banging sound, and bit back his snort of amusement when he saw Gaara's head on the desk. His vivid semi long shaggy red hair falling in his eyes a little bit as he sighed and lifted his head, his aqua eyes darkened a little bit to a pale green as he clenched his jaw in irritation.

"She's no more a ghost than you or I." Gaara bit out from between clenched teeth. But that didn't mean that gathering information on her was easy. Which was just a mite weird considering that they were shinobi and_ knew_ pretty much _everyone_ in every nation.

Kankuro made a humming sound as he studied his brother. The poor guy was so frustrated that he was a hairs breath from a mental meltdown of epic proportions. "I know that Gaara, but it doesn't change the fact that _no one_ anywhere knows her."

Gaara sighed tiredly as he leaned back in his seat and forced himself to relax before his eye started twitching or something."Then we aren't digging deep enough." _Or asking the right questions._ Gaara thought as he leaned his head back against the seat and closed his eyes for a second.

"You may be right. I just wish something would turn up-" Kankuro said with a sigh as he lifted a hand to run his fingers through his dark brown hair before asking. "When did the doctor say that she would wake up again?"

Gaara made a humming sound and looked at the clock hanging on the wall across the room and noted that his lunch break was coming up. "He said that she would awaken in a few days-" And it had already been three. "So she may wake up today, tomorrow, or even the day after."

"I see... Are you going to go visit her today?"

"Yes." Gaara said. He didn't want to miss his chance to be there when she woke up to ask her who she was and where she was from.

Kankuro stayed quiet for a second or so then perked up. "Have you tried taking Jane Doe some flowers? Maybe give her a kiss to see if she might respond a little bit?" He was joking of course but Gaara eventually didn't know that if the look of consideration on his face was any indication at all. Kankuro stayed quiet and secretly hoped that Gaara would catch on to his joke, but after a moment or so of silence Gaara finally looked at him and asked.

"On the lips or the cheek?"

Kankuro's jaw dropped a little bit and he started to stutter as Gaara looked at the clock again and stood up and walked over to the nearest open window and said over his shoulder. "Never mind. I'll figure it out. Thanks for the tip brother." Then vanished outside before Kankuro could so much as say a single word.

The older man made a distressed sound as he stared at the empty chair his younger brother had been sitting in a few moments before and hung his head a little bit and slowly made his way over to the office door and opened it.

He had two apologies to write. One to Jane Doe and one to Gaara. Then he needed to write his will.

Because Gaara was going to murder him once he realised his mistake.


	7. Chapter 7

9taylz4evr- Silly thing. I always_ try_ to answer the people who contact me.

But I get over a hundred e-mails every hour from other authors wanting help, story requests, story update requests. I get people contacting me with story ideas, who ask me to write a story specifically for them. So for anyone who has ever e-mailed me and never gotten a reply, it's not because I didn't want to reply.

It's because I have a lot of traffic in my e-mail and sometimes things get more than a little crazy...

But I'm always happy to hear from everyone. And I'm even happier to take a few minutes out to talk to people.

So don't feel shy. You can contact me for anything.

And I often contact my fans to ask them for help with ironing out details for new stories.

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She woke up in the same room that she vaguely recalled from before. The beeping of the machines, helping to draw her back to consciousness.

She blinked several times, and looked around the room again feeling an odd sense of day ja vu as she slowly, very slowly tried to push herself upright and paused after a second or so. Waiting for the pain to start up again and frowned when it didn't.

Reaching up with one hand she nervously ran her fingers through her hair, absent mindedly searching for sore spots, stitches, and staples that could indicate that someone had operated on her head and was relieved to find none of those things.

_Well at least I can rule out mind scrambling as a form of torture._ She thought in wary amusement as she finally managed to push herself upright in the bed and looked around again, trying to see if she had accidentally left out anything when she had last looked around the room.

So far she didn't think that she had missed anything. There wasn't really much to look for anyways. There was however a chair beside her bed that she couldn't recall being there before. Meaning that someone had been visiting her. She frowned and tried to think of who and gasped when images of a man with tattoo for 'Ai', semi long, shaggy red hair and worried aqua eyes staring down at her.

_Who is he? _

She didn't know him, or at least she didn't think that she did, but for some reason he looked so familiar. Like she had seen him somewhere before but couldn't recall when or where. She sat there for what seemed like forever before the images in her head finally quieted and went away, leaving her with a peculiar sense of loss before she decided to try and find out where she was.

She reached over and carefully pulled out her IV and then pulled off the other wires monitoring her heart and other things and then pushed the covers back and slowly moved her legs towards the edge of the bed and slowly put her feet on the floor, cringing a little bit at how cold the tile floor was before she tried to stand up.

Her legs nearly buckled on her when she tried to put all of her weight on them, but she didn't let that stop her any. She had never been type of girl to quit when things didn't go her way. Quiting was for losers and weaklings, and she was neither of those things.

She took an unsteady step, followed by another, encouraged a little bit when her legs didn't go out from under her and after a few moments finally managed to stagger her way over to the window and grabbed the window sill and looked outside and frowned.

The buildings in the village (she knew it was a village because of how it was set up) were made up of white and light brown colored bricks, tempered unbreakable glass windows to protect the people from the harsh winds and heat and sand...

Sand? She frowned a little more as she studied the grounds below.

There was sand everywhere. The glittering whitish pale yellow grains reflecting the sun above the village.

Sauna. She was in Sauna, there was no other place in the world she could be with this much sand. Dammit. What was she doing in the sand village? She had been over a hundred miles away from here when she had been on her mission. She took a deep breath and leaned in, resting her forehead against the glass and closed her eyes for a second.

_I hope the Leaf village is doing okay without me..._

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Tsunade threw her gaki's chair out of the tower window before splitting the desk in half under her hands as she shrieked in rage. "What the hell do you mean you've lost contact with her?" The group in front of her cowered a little bit as one man stuttered.

"P-P-Princess T-Tsu-unade, p-p-please c-calm d-d-down-"

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down! Are you people morons? You've lost contact with your Kage, while she's on an extremely dangerous mission and you want me to calm down!" Tsunade's chakra spiked with murderous intent. If anything had happened to her gaki...

_Ohhhh_ someone would pay. Someone would pay dearly.

One Anbu, who had been standing with his back against the wall, stepped forward and reached up and removed his snarling wolf mask and ran his fingers through his silver hair. "She's fine Tsunade. Uzu is a fighter. She wouldn't have been made our Kage if she wasn't." The man said calmly despite the fact that he was seething inside.

If anyone had so much as _touched_ Uzu, he was going to rip out their insides and feed them to them.

"_Don't. Try. To. Pacify. Me. Wolf_-" Tsunade snarled at the man who just blinked at her with a bemused expression on his masked face. "Your her Anbu for fuck sake. Your supposed to know where she is at all times. Now get out there and do your fucking jobs and find my gaki before I go mid evil on your asses!"

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Gaara walked down the halls of the hospital to Jane Does room with a small bouquet of exotic lavender purple orchids in his hand and grasped the door knob in his other hand and quietly opened the door and stepped into the room before noticing that the bed was empty and looking around for a second in a panic, worried that the woman had tried to escape again and hurt herself. But that worry was quickly put to rest when he saw the woman standing over by the window across the room with her back to him.

"Your awake." He said softly, trying to gain her attention without startling her.

She turned her head slightly and looked at him, those stunning vivid violet eyes pinning him in place with just a small glance. "Are you the one who's been visiting me?" It was such a small question, spoken in such a soft, breathy voice. Yet that soft breathy voice held so much authority to it that he felt compelled to answer her.

"I am. Are you feeling well enough to answer some questions?"

She turned her body so that she was facing him and studied him for a second before nodding her head. She would have to tread carefully with this man, whoever he was in was in a position of power and she had no wish to be thrown in a cell and tortured further.

Not when it could mean war between their villages.


	8. Chapter 8

"I'll answer any questions that you have...on one condition."

"A condition?" Gaara asked, as he moved further into the room and set the flowers on the bed, his aqua eyes never leaving the dark haired beauty staring him down. He found it just a little bit interesting that someone who had just woken up in the hospital, in a village that she didn't belong too would agree to answer his questions, then attach a condition to her agreement.

It was suspicious to say the least, but for the moment he would humor her and see what her condition was. The woman nodded her head with a serious expression on her face, then asked. "Could I have some food? IV's are nice and all to keep the body from failing for a while, but they do nothing for the painful cramping in ones stomach."

Gaara blinked at her. "Is that your condition?"

"No-" She said and Gaara could feel himself tense a little bit. No doubt she would want immunity to any terrorist act she had been a part of. Or maybe she wanted something else. But what? "My condition is that the food be eatable." The woman said as her lips curved up in a small knowing smile that made Gaara's mind temporarily shut down before he narrowed his eyes at her.

The woman was sort of playing with him.

For what reason, he had no idea, but he knew that that was what she was doing just the same. He gave her an amused smile and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I suppose that I can do that but..."

"I already said that I would answer your questions. There is no reason for you to play games." The woman said in a sharp tone that made Gaara flinch a little bit and stare at her wide eyed. My but she was an impatient one.

And obviously used to having her way.

"I wasn't playing games. What I was going to say is that I don't know what you want to eat." Gaara said slowly. The woman blinked at him, suddenly at a loss for words as a soft pink flush worked it's way across her pale cheeks.

She made a small sound and lifted a hand to run her fingers through her long dark hair as an embarressed look crossed her pretty face. "Oh. Sorry."

Gaara wasn't sure why she was apologising, it didn't matter to him if she had thought that he was playing with her. In fact it was sort of understandable. Shinobi did sort of have the habit of playing with their victims. Especially when questioning them for certain information. They promised one thing, yet used other tactics to break down the one that they questioned using pain, humiliation, starvation and other forms of torture to get what they wanted.

The fact that this woman was aware of that told him a little bit about her.

Meaning that she was either a shinobi, the daughter, sister, or wife of a shinobi, or she had worked along side shinobi enough to gain intimate knowledge of how they worked. He shrugged his shoulders. "Don't be. Tell me your name and I'll have some eatable food brought to us." He said as he reached out and picked up the call button and waited patiently for her to say something.

"My name is Uzu."

"Uzu what?" Gaara asked curiously.

"Nothing. Just Uzu."

Gaara stared at her for a moment or two, wanting to ask why she felt the need to lie about not having a last name, but figured that he'd let it slide for now and went ahead and pressed the button to order some food for them both since he was feeling a little bit hungry himself.

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Gaara paused in mid motion, his sandwich half way to his mouth as his eyes flickered to the woman, his expression bemused as Uzu wolfed down the pile of food on the tray in front of her. She picked up the fifth ham and cheese sandwich and fixed it just the way she liked it, with lots of packaged mayo and some mustard, then took a huge bite and swallowed without chewing, causing Gaara's eyes to widen a little bit in alarm.

Gods in heaven she was going to choke herself if she didn't slow down and start chewing her food.

He cleared his throat and set his food aside for the moment, he was just a little too distracted to eat now anyways. "So where are you from Uzu?" He asked curiously. She took another huge bite and he caught the brief glimpse of overly sharp and pointy, dainty little canine teeth and frowned wondering if it was a genetic trait, a clan trait, or maybe a fashion where she was from to have such fang like little teeth.

Uzu's eyes flickered to his face under her bangs as she swallowed and set the little bit of her sandwich down on the plate on the tray and picked up the carton of milk and opened it so that she could take a drink before she answered him.

"I'm from the rock village." It was a lie of course. She was still undercover and until her Anbu managed to track her down she had to play her part perfectly or her life would be forfeit and her village would be without it's Kage.

"Your a long way from home then-" Gaara said thoughtfully. Uzu nodded her head slightly. "What brought you all the way out here?" Gaara finally asked.

"A band of kidnapping gypsies." Uzu said.

Gaara cocked his head slightly. "Kidnapping gypsies?"

"Yeah. The damn bastards grabbed me while I was walking home from the market where some of their people had set up to sale their wares. Apparently violet eyes are considered exotic enough to kidnap someone over."

Gaara's lips twitched. She was lying. She had to be, yet she sounded so aggrieved. Like it had actually happened. "That must have been...rough." He said after a second or so as he took several deep breaths and tried to suppress his need to laugh.

Gaara had had the mis fortune to meet up with a group of gypsies before when he was younger. They were a peculiar nomadic people who mostly kept to themselves. They were superstitious, and lived on the naivete of the people that they preyed on.

And though he knew that she was lying she was at least being truthful about something. Gypsies did have the habit of kidnapping and coveting what they thought was exotic and beautiful. People, gems, clothes, coins.

None of these things were exempt.


	9. Chapter 9

Two weeks later-

"So what have you learned about Jane Doe?" Kankuro asked curiously as he set down a small pile of papers for Gaara to look through.

Gaara reached out and picked up the first paper, skimmed it and the used his chakra to burn it. He was _not_ getting into another fight between warring council members who were too petty and stupid to deal with their own problems, as he considered his brother's question about the woman that he had placed with in the walls of his personal residence, and assigned a small group of Anbu to watch.

"Not much. Her name is Uzu. She's sixteen. Blood type AB. Weight...uh...she got a little pissed about that question and threw a lamp at my head-" Gaara said as he picked up another piece of paper and paused as he thought about what he had just said.

He still didn't understand why she had gotten so upset about her weight. Most women would kill to weigh one hundred and ten and look as drop dead gorgeous as she did.

Kankuro looked down at him with an bemused look on his face. "Anything else?"

"She's a shinobi. Or at least that's the feeling that I get from her sometimes."

"A shinobi? Really?" Kankuro sounded slightly surprised to his brother.

"Yeah. A damn impressive one too. I'd say she would be on par with a Kage, her level of training must have been _brutal_."

"What rank?"

"Probably a classified SSS-rank."

"Holy shit... You really think she's a SSS-rank nin?" Kankuro asked in disbelief, his face suddenly draining of all color.

"Yes."

"But aren't SSS-rank shinobi extremely hard to notice?"

"Because they are taught to blend in with their surroundings on a level that makes them difficult to spot. Yes. But their village usually appoints them for extremely dangerous assassination missions that can take anywhere from a month to several years. They are told to do _whatever_ it takes to get their target. Some even go so far as to become a member of the village where their target is. I've even heard of some that worked in brothels and married and started families all for the sake of getting close to their target."

"I've heard of some of those cases. I've also heard that once their mission is done, they _kill_ their own families if they have them. Just to keep from being caught or having them used against them later on..."

"Actually it's more along the lines of killing them to keep them from being killed by enemy nins in retaliation. Regardless of what anyone must think of them, it must be very_ painful_ to start a life and family with someone, and then have no choice but to kill them and any children that you've had together. I imagine the guilt would _ruin_ them for life."

Kankuro had a horrified look on his face now. The thought of any person having to suffer such things for the sake of their village was just sickening and cruel! "I-I thought that the use of SSS-rank nins was outlawed several years ago." Kankuro said in a slightly shaky voice.

"They were supposed to be. And in most cases they were."

"Most cases?" Kankuro asked, wondering what Gaara was trying to hint at. His brother signed the paper in front of him and set it aside before saying in a dark tone.

"Leave it alone Kankuro. You do _not_ want to know what I meant by most cases." Kankuro blinked as Gaara tilted his head a little bit and gave him the same cold look that he had once given him as a child.

That look of disdain and hatred had always stuck with Kankuro.

He found it just a little frightening that Gaara wore that expression now. So he nodded his head and quietly excused himself from his brother's office and went to see if he could find something to do.


	10. Chapter 10

Gaara sighed and stood up as soon as his brother was out of the room and walked over to the dome shaped tempered glass window off to the side of his desk and looked outside at the village. He knew that he shouldn't be shutting out his brother about what he knew of the SSS-rank nins still in existence. But he didn't want his brother to know just how truly horrifying achieving the rank of SSS was for a shinobi like the woman in his home.

He didn't want his brother asking the woman questions about the sensitive subject later on and dredging up more than _painful_ memories. For all he knew she may have had to murder her lover/husband and maybe even her own child.

After all the doctor had pulled him aside the other day to tell him that he had noticed that there were certain hormones in her body that indicated that she may have had a child at some point within the last year or so.

Gaara stared out the window, still having a little bit of difficulty digesting the fact that the villages that still used SSS-rank nins, used demon containers simply for the sake of torturing them until they were broken beyond repair...

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Uzu lay on the bed in the room that had been assigned to her by the Kazekage and wondered if the Anbu from the leaf village had found Aarai yet. She sighed and rolled over onto her back and put an arm over her eyes.

_Aarai..._

She was worried about the daughter that she had carried and given birth too in secret, then left in a town not far from her mark so that the child wouldn't become a target or victim of a retaliation strike. She'd left clues for her Anbu to find when they went looking for her, so maybe Aarai had already been found and taken back to the village.

The thought of her baby being cuddled and cooed at by Tsunade made her feel less guilty about abandoning the child for the sake of the mission. But abandoning Aarai had been the only choice she could live with. And it had been so much better than the alternative.

She had _never_ murdered an innocent child before and she would have done anything to keep from starting now. Even if it was for the sake of her mission.

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Tsunade's left eye twitched as she tried to focus on the report one of her gaki's Anbu was trying to give her.

_Tried_, being the operative word since her gaze kept straying to the Copy nin standing across the room with a tightly bundled infant cuddled against his chest, cooing at the child as if it were the most natural thing in the world to him.

Finally the Anbu stopped talking, giving her free reign to ask the question plaguing her mind. "Kakashi! Is that your demon spawn?"

The copy nin lifted his head to look at her and practically snarled at her. "_Don't call her a demon you old bitch_." Tsunade recoiled slightly in shock and disbelief. In all her years, no one but her gaki had ever spoken to her with such disrespect. And the fact that the copy nin had felt the need to call her an 'old bitch' meant that the man had taken offense to her words when she hadn't meant anything by them.

The baby made a soft almost sniffling sound and Kakashi turned his attention back to the child and started rocking it and making soft hushing sounds to keep it from crying. Tsunade blinked and watched the man before saying, "You know Kakashi, for a guy, you'd make a damn good mom."

The copy nin lifted his head and looked at her again then muttered. "Well someone should act like the kids mom since you haven't got a maternal bone in your body."

"Tell me Kakashi, how is it that I sent you to retrieve your Kage and you came back with a baby instead?"

"Because this is what Uzu wanted." Kakashi said as he shifted his hold on the child and dug out a letter that had been handed to him by the person who had been taking care of Uzu's daughter. Kakashi had been sceptical at first that his former student had had a kid. He'd been so sure that her mission hadn't called for her to become the lover of some guy, but after reading the letter and seeing the baby, he'd had _no_ choice but to believe what had been written.

Besides, it was hard not to believe that the baby was Uzu's. It looked just like her.

It had the same wide violet eyes. The same soft blond hair. Hell, the kid even smelled like her underneath all that baby powder and scented shampoo.

And along with the letter explaining about the baby and who she was, was a brief but detailed list of instructions. One of which put the child in Kakashi's care. Apparently Uzu wanted him to temporarily claim the child as his until she could finish her mission and return to the village.

Tsunade took the letter and skimmed over it once and paled slightly. "Oh god Kakashi-"

"I know." The copy nin said without hesitation. His voice very soft. He knew exactly what she was feeling at the moment. He'd felt that way too when he had read Uzu's letter the first time. But there was nothing that they could do about what she'd had to do. Nor was there any way to give her back the parts of herself that must have been destroyed during her mission.

"And she still had the child?"

"You know Uzu, Tsunade. She wouldn't hate an innocent life just because of how it was conceived." Kakashi said gently as he smiled down at the little one as she freed one of her hands and reached for his mask.

"I-I know, but this is too much. _It's asking too much_." Tsunade said in horrified tone.

"Your right. Having her go through that is asking too much, but there was no way around it. To get close to her target she had to put up with it."

"I hope she killed every last one of them-"

"I'm sure that if she hasn't already, then she soon will."

"Alright. Anbu, you have two days to rest before I send you back out to look for Uzu. Kakashi, bring the baby here and let me see my grandchild."

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Okay kittens just a quick word.

First of all I know that last bit hinted at something horrible. But there was no rape involved.

Uzu was deep, _deep_ undercover on an infiltration/assassination mission and doing certain things was the only way that she could get close to her target. She probably had to ease up some when she got pregnant.

But since most of the dirty work was already done then all she had to do was observe and wait to have the baby then hide it and say that it was dead to keep the father from looking for it.

I didn't actually plan to put a kid in the story, but once I started writing the chapter I thought it would be cute for Gaara to have an already made family. God knows how much that man would adore the baby.

And Temari and Kankuro would spoil it outrageously, so maybe this will work out.


	11. Authors notes

Kittens-

This is a brief not to let you know why I haven't been updating as usual. I apologize for that.

As some of you know both of my grandmothers are in bad shape and I've been taking some time out to spend time with them both and helping my parents with some difficult choices.

Well, last week my mammaw Kay- the one dying from cancer, took a turn for the worse. Her cancer ate a hole in her stomach and she was septic. Last night at about 6:45 pm my mother called me from the nursing home where she is.

She's in full organ failure and has an infection. The doctors said that she had a day at the most. So by my rough estimate she has only a few hours left.

I've been trying to write and update as much as possible because I knew that this was coming and I needed something to relieve my stress however because my stress was so great I was not able to update my Naruto stories like I wanted too.

Unfortunately every time I sat down to update my Naruto stories, I added more humor to the chapters than I originally intended. I'm sure that some of you have noticed this.

Its my minds only way of escaping.

I'm not sure how much longer it will be, but I'll keep working regardless of what happens. So just hang in there and be patient.

Thank you,

Misty G.


	12. Authors notes 2

Hello kittens-

Sad, sad news.

My grandmother died last night at 10:45.

I'm still trying to work on updates and such, but I"m not getting very far.

I'll contact everyone again when I have something good to report.


	13. Chapter 13

Hello kittens!

It's been a little while, but whatever. I've been updating shit like crazy just to make sure that you all have something to read.

Before I get to the story I want to take the time out to thank those of you who contacted me during this difficult time.

-llandry43

-Doooom Lord of the Waffels

-Le Creuset

-xx-BritCullen-xx

-FCK

-Takai-taka

And for those of you who contacted me and you're names aren't mentioned above. Please don't get pissed. I saved all of your emails and to find them all I have to go through thousands of old e-mails. It took me_ forever_ just to find the ones mentioned above.

So for those of you mentioned above and for those of you not mentioned- Thank you.

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Later that day-

Gaara went home after a hard day's work expecting some peace and quiet so that he could relax. He slipped through the front door and quietly slipped his shoes and his sand gourd off before he remembered that he had an unknown nin running around his home and with a tired sigh, slipped his sand gourd back on then walked through the house. Systematically checking each room so that he could find said woman before he did anything else.

After all it simply wouldn't do for her to jump out at him or manage to get behind him or-

"What are you doing?" Uzu asked from somewhere behind him, causing him to jump a little bit before he twisted around to look at her. _How the hell-_

"You step far too softly for someone who is a guest in my home-" He said in an irritated voice before asking, "What are you doing creeping around behind me?"

"I was just..." Uzu started to tell him that she was playing a little bit of a game with his personal cook since the man had refused to let her fix herself anything to eat and had on top of that, insulted her in a very bad way by calling her something akin to the 'whore of babylon'.

Which had upset her greatly since she had been raised as a good girl. So to retaliate without drawing blood she had placed a small genjutsu on the man without him knowing and had started scaring him.

So far she had him so freaked that he was trying to hide from her. It wouldn't work since she could sense him but she would at least allow him a few minutes to think that he was safe. She had been on her way to frighten him again when she had come up on the Kage skulking around and had decided to follow him a little bit to see what he was doing.

Gaara crossed his arms and got an impatient look on his face and she realized that she hadn't really answered him yet. "Your cook insulted me so I'm playing a little bit of a game with him." Was all she said for a moment or so as Gaara cocked his head and gave her a curious look.

"Oh? What sort of game?" Gaara asked curiously.

"I've been scaring him and letting him run willy nilly through the house. By the way some lamps and vases were damaged in various places-"

"Damaged?" Gaara asked stupidly. Was that her way of telling him that her game had gotten a little out of hand and some of his stuff had payed the price?

"Yeah. The crazy old man threw a few pieces at me."

"Ah. Are you hurt?" Gaara asked, unsure of what else to say. The woman gave him a strange look then shook her head.

"No. But I am feeling rather vindictive at the moment. Would you mind terribly if I played a few more rounds before I end the game?"

"That depends, your not going to kill my cook are you?"

She gave him an amused smile. "No. But I definitely won't stop until he's at least peed his pants."

Gaara looked at her in surprise and smiled a little bit. "That sounds like it could be a funny thing to see. Would you mind if I join the game?"

She shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just don't get in my way."

Gaara gave her a calculating look. _Oh I wouldn't dream of getting in your way. _He thought as she brushed past him a little ways and started walking down the hall towards his private study as he fell into step behind her, more than a little curious to see how this 'game' of hers would end._  
_


	14. Chapter 14

Turns out that not getting in her way, was perhaps one of the most intelligent things that Gaara could have done for himself. The damned woman was a sadist. And not the usual kind that scared the hell out of him. But the sneaky kind who enjoyed lulling people into a false sense of security and pouncing on them like an animal.

_Literally._ He thought with an aghast look on his face as the woman pounced on his terrified cook and made a feline like hissing sound as the elderly man screamed in fear and tried to drag himself across the room with bloody finger tips.

She hadn't been kidding when she had told him that she was feeling a mite vindictive. Gaara surpmised as his cook screamed and yelled and rolled around the floor of Gaara's study, trying to get the woman off of his back.

She made a half laugh, half snorting sound and flipped the old man so that he was facing her and focused some of her chakra into her eyes and made them glow a feral red-

Gaara figured that now would be a good time to make her stop. He wasn't sure just how far she was planning to take her little game, but he was fairly sure that if she scared his cook anymore today that the man just might die of a heart attack induced by extrem fear. Gaara clapped his hands together and waited for a reaction from the woman.

She visibly jerked and looked at him, her expression one of wide eyed innocence.

"I think that's enough. He's terrified."

"Think so?" She asked curiously then looked back at the elder cowering under her and narrowed her eyes at him a little bit and started to open her mouth to let out another animal like hiss. But Gaara stopped her by walking up behind her and putting his hand over her mouth to stop her.

She sat there for a moment staring at his cook, then tipped her head back and looked up at him over the top of his hand. She didn't look terribly upset at having her fun and games ruined. But then Gaara couldn't get a good feel for her emotions yet.

So for all he knew he'd be spending the next few weeks or so sleeping with his eyes open, his door locked and with bear traps littering the floor around his bed. She'd have to talk to him once he calmed down and explain why she had placed a genjutsu on the old man.

Who knew, maybe he would understand why she had done it.

"Come on. Don't look at me like that. If you scare him any further his heart might give out." Gaara said as he removed his hand from her mouth. She made a humming sound and climbed off of the elder, but not before she released the genjutsu that she had placed on him.

Startling Gaara a little bit since he hadn't been able to _sense_ the foreign chakra pulsing through the elder's body until she had released the jutsu. "You had him under a genjutsu." It wasn't a question.

It was a softly said, outraged sounding statement. And she didn't have the decency to even look sorry for what she had done. Gaara's temper spiked a little bit and he reached out and grasped her arm and jerked her away from the elder trying to catch his breath on the floor and snarled at her. "How dare you- How dare you use a jutsu on someone under my protection. Were you trying to kill him?" He tightened his grip on her and shook her a little bit, hoping that she would apologise and swear never to do it again while in his village.

But she said nothing. She merely stared at him with a blank expression that he was quickly starting to recognize as her 'shield'. The part of her mind and heart that helped her function as a SSS-rank shinobi. The part of her that protected her _weaker_ and more _tender_ thoughts and feelings. The part of herself that she used when she felt she was about to be hurt.

Gaara stopped shaking her and abruptly let go of her arm and took a step or two back away from her and looked down at his hand in shock, feeling like he much like he had for a majority of his life- Like a monster. He curled his fingers closed and dropped his hand and without another word walked away from her and left the study to go to his room for a little while so that he could calm down and think on why she would shut down like that mentally when he had done _nothing_ so far to harm her.

He walked up the stairs to the second floor and took off running as soon as he reached the last stair and ran all the way to his room and pushed the door open and slipped inside and slammed the door.

Uzu stared at the ceiling for a moment as she heard a door slam and lifted a hand and scratched her left cheek and mentally went over what had just happened. She had reacted similar to how she had been trained to react by the abuse that she had suffered as a child. She had shut down and waited for him to strike her or something.

To be honest part of her knew that he wouldn't. But she had been unable to stop herself. She'd learned as a kid that sometimes the nicest people were the ones who wished her the most pain and suffering.

And yet- The fact that he had left the room in an effort to keep from harming her spoke volumes about his personality and beliefs. She'd have to talk to him later and explain why she had placed the old man under a genjutsu.

Who knew, maybe Gaara would understand.


	15. Chapter 15

Gaara wasn't sure how long he had been in his room. _Avoiding_ the woman like she was the bloody plague.

But he was fairly certain that he must have gone to sleep at some point because one second he had been laying face down on his bed and the next he cracked open one eye and saw that there was a sandwich sitting on the bedside table along with a glass of juice.

Frowning he pushed himself up until he was on his hands and knees and moved over to the edge of the bed and looked at the food and drink combo like it was demonic possessed or something.

It looked normal enough but after what had happened earlier Garra wouldn't be surprised if the food and drink was a genjutsu that was meant to scare him like this, Stupidly trusting he would pick up the sandwich. Then just before he could take a bite- **Grrrarr!** _Snap._ The sandwich would come to life and bite off his hand. He'd scream in shock and horror while mentally going over the irony of a sandwich eating his hand while he bled to death or died of a heart attack.

Yeah...this set up wasn't suspicious at all...

He looked around the room and cautiously slipped a kunai from one of his many hiding places (under his shirt) and poked at the food a little bit first.

Then made sure that he wasn't stuck in a genjutsu the poked at the food a little more before cutting it into smaller portions and the paused when he realized how paranoid he was being and looked around the room again.

Wondering if the blasted woman was hiding somewhere watching him. Maybe laughing at him because he was so freaked out by everything that had happened earlier that he couldn't stop thinking that maybe she had decided to pay him back for shaking her or something.

He cautiously picked up a piece and started to take a bite and paused so that he could check under his bed to make sure that she wasn't going to grab his ankles while he was chewing and cause him to choke. And upon finding nothing there decided that it was safe to finally eat.

He got about half way through his meal, still trying to figure out how she had managed to enter his room without waking him; when something fell from over his head and hit the mattress right behind him. He automatically dropped his food and looked up, sensing something _horrible_ was on the verge of happening to him and blanched and quickly scrambled off of his bed as Uzu dropped down from his ceiling.

The lunitic hit his bed, bounced twice while laughing then flipped herself backwards off of the bed and ran out of the room cackling like a deranged person. Leaving Gaara sitting on his floor, clutching his chest, hyperventilating a little bit.

Dear god that woman and her pranks were going to be the death of him.

But at least he hadn't choked on his food. That was sort of a plus. Right?

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Wow that was notoriously short.

I actually imagined that it would be longer but I guess that as long as I write something it's okay.

Enjoy the humor. My whole personality is about to become more twisted due to my new meds.


	16. Chapter 16

Hey, it's been a while. So I decided to try updating Craving Touch.

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Four days later-

Gaara krept though his home with his shoes in one hand, trying hard not to draw the unwanted attention of Uzu. Especially since she had been pranking him non stop since the sandwhich incident several days ago.

Thankfully today, he had chosen to get out of the house while it was still dark. Assuming that she was currently sleeping in her room instead of creeping about his home like a ghost or something that is.

He moved quickly but silently down the hall until he reached his study where he paused because he saw some faint light coming from under the closed doors. _So_ _much for that damn woman not being up and creeping about-_ He thought as he narrowed his icy aqua eyes and decided to go into the room and see what his guest was up too.

Hopefully she wasn't a spy after village secrets otherwise he would have to kill her.

Reaching out with his free hand, he grasped one of the doorknobs and slowly, quietly so as not to draw attention to himself, turned the knob and let the door open just enough for him to see Uzu sitting at his desk writing by the soft glow of candle light. Curious about what she was writing, he waited and watched.

He figured that he had been watching her for close to ten minutes when she seemed to finish what she was writing. Once she set the pen aside she rolled the piece of paper she had been writing on and then pulled something out of her pants pocket- A little silver and emerald colored ring with a kanji carved into the stone. Gaara's eyes widened in recognition as he realized what she was slipping on her finger.

Dear god that was a Kage's ring! And the stone in it represented the village the ring belonged too. _The leaf! _He thought, his mind going over who had last been named Kage of the village.

Uzumaki, was all he could think of at that moment as images of an angry strawberry blonde girl with shoulder length hair and flashing violet eyes flitted through his mind. Along with how he had fought her at the chunin exams, her words about how he could turn his life around, how she would one day be the Hokage of her village- How they could be friends...

His chest ached as he let his eyes closed for a moment as she picked up a candle and used the wax to seal the paper closed. He heard his chair scrape back a second before he heard Uzu say, "I know that your there Gaara. So you might as well come out." His eyes snapped open and he pushed the door open so quickly that it hit the wall as he stood there and just stared at her.

"Uzumaki..."

Uzu flinched a bit upon hearing her old name but said nothing as he stepped into the room and slowly walked over to her and reached out and grasped her shoulders gently in his hands and looked her over. "Here I've been practically killing myself trying to figure out who you are and you turn out to be the first friend I ever had- The person who saved me when I needed it the most." He said in a slightly shakey tone.

She smiled at him and held a hand out to him, Gaara looked down at it for a moment before releasing her shoulders to grasp it as she said. "How've you been Gaara?" He grinned and squeezed her hand a little bit.

"I'm good. Just working myself into an early retirment."

"Ah, you too huh?"

"What have you been up too?" He asked, honestly wanting to know what had happened to her between the last time he had seen her and now.

"Oh not much. Missions mostly. Became Kage of the leaf village. I had a kid in secret about a year ago- Ya know, stuff." She said with a shrug when Gaara practically shouted at her,

"Stuff! Stuff! You idiot, you're the fucking Kage of the leaf village! They will be looking for you-"

"That's why I was borrowing a piece of paper from your desk. I needed to write to Tsunade and tell her that I'm okay and give her my whereabouts. Do you mind if I use one of your birds to send it off?"

Gaara seemed to instantly calm upon knowing that she had been planning to let her people know where she was and that she was still alive. He would have been worried if a whole fleet of leaf shinobi led by Tsunade came knocking in a month or so looking for her. "Yeah, I think that might be for the best." He said as he reached out and took the letter from her then looked at her.

"Tell you what, go on to bed and I'll send this out since you're not exactly dressed to go outside at the moment." He said, pointedly staring at her slip of a shirt and the thin cotton pants she currently wore.

Uzu looked down at herself and then back at him with a panicked expression on her face as she brought her arms up to cover her breasts and flushed as she muttered, "Pervert." Then turned and walked out of the room without another word.


	17. Chapter 17

Yo kittens, sorry about this. I'm not sure if it makes sense but I wanted to add this as a plot twist to help bring Gaara and Uzu together. I'll explain the rest as the story goes.

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Kankuro spat his coffee across the room the second Gaara told him that he had finally figured out who the woman staying with him was.

Earning a dark look from his younger brother who first looked at the possible stain his older brother had created then sank down in his seat until all that was visible was his eyes and the top of his head as he asked with an annoyed growl. "Why is it that everytime I tell you something of relevance you spit all over my office?"

"S-Sorry little bro-" Kankuro said as he quickly dropped down to his knees and set his mug aside and rubbed at the stain with his shirt sleeve. Behind the desk, Gaara rolled his eyes and sighed. All Kankuro was doing was making the stain set in his nice clean carpet- Damn him.

Face palming, Gaara decided to try a different tactic. "Kankuro-" His brother paused and looked at him, his eyes wide as he waited for him to speak. Gaara sighed again and hung his head a little bit in defeat. "Nevermind."

"Oh, okay." Kankuro said as he finished up what he was doing and finally stood, bringing his mug with him as he did so. "There's something that puzzles me. If that woman really is Uzumaki, then why didn't she just come out and say so?"

" Well-" Gaara said as he sat up in his seat and rested his elbows on his desk and folded his fingers. "in the beginning I believe that it had to do with the toxins messing with her mind. I mean let's face it, that stuff _had_ to be unusually potent to take a juggernaut like her down. But then we cannot dismiss the fact that she must have been undercover on a mission. Those are the only reasons I can think of for her not to say anything."

"And now that you know who she is?"

"I would imagine now that her mission is over. She'll go back to the leaf village."

"I see." Kankuro said softly as he took another drink of coffee then checked his watch and muttered, "Damn. I need to head out and meet Temari and her team."

"Take several Anbu with you. We've had raiders in the area recently."

"Okay. I'll stop by your place later today with Temari and all of us will have dinner with Uzu and catch up on things."

Gaara nodded and used his sand to snatch his brother's coffee from him earning a disgruntled look from him before he checked his watch again then waved bye and dashed out of Gaara's office like his pants were on fire.

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Uzu stepped out of the shower in her room and snagged a towel from the peg hanging on the wall and wrapped it around her as she made her way over to the fogged up mirror, and wiped at it with her hand so that she could check her appearance in the glass. After waking up a little while ago and deeming it useless to continue with her current mission, she had decided to cut and then dye her hair back to her natrual color.

"Now all I have to do is wait for a reply from Tsunade then to move on to my next mission..." _The fusion of two countries through marriage. _Rock was out. So was Mist and Water which left-

Only Sand and her childhood friend.

She closed her eyes and lowered her head a little bit and tried to supress the nearly overwhelming urge to cry.

She didn't like the idea of marrying Gaara just so that her village could use him and his military forces. She wasn't a conquer. But she knew that the group that she had spent the past while undercover with were planning to annihilate both the Leaf and Sand villages.

It was part of the reason she had gotten pregnant and given birth to the leader's child. She was hoping to stall him with the knowledge of the child while she came up with a plan to stop the all out war that was heading steadily closer and closer to her home and the home of her friend.

Looking at herself in the mirror again she noticed that her eyes were red rimmed as they flashed crimson and she said to herself, "How much farther must I sink into the abyss before everything finally ends?"


End file.
